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Hoax: The Inside Story of the Howard Hughes-Clifford Irving Affair
The Inside Story Of The Howard Hughes-Clifford Irving Affai by Fay, Stephen Et.Al.
- GenresNonfictionTrue Crime
310 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1972
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 22, 2020
It’s hard to imagine someone today having such a combination of power and celebrity as Howard Hughes. Maybe if Bill Gates was not just a leading businessman, innovator and philanthropist, but also a Hollywood mogul who had dated Angelina Jolie and Scarlett Johansson, as well as being an aeronautical engineer who had designed and flown his own spaceships, before becoming a recluse and subject to weirder rumours than Michael Jackson.
Even at second remove, Hughes dominates this book about a book, whose ostensible subject is Clifford Irving who, as a moderately successful author, was living on Ibiza with his fourth wife in the early 1970s. One of his neighbours, and subjects, was the art forger Elmyr de Hory (both appeared in the Orson Welles film F for Fake). Several factors enabled Irving to extract substantial payments for his bogus autobiography. His father plausibly claimed to have known Hughes, so there was “in”. Following de Hory’s example, he was able to forge letters from Hughes that handwriting experts passed as genuine. Moreover, via a dishonest Hollywood agent, he’d got his hands on the unpublished memoir of one of Hughes’ former aides, and hence a lot of genuine anecdotes, many of them unknown to the public. When these checked out, it boosted the publisher’s belief in Irving.
Finally, with Hughes being a recluse, it wasn’t possible to check the authenticity directly with him. At least, not at first. After failing to stop the book by legal means, Hughes decided to give an interview, his first for 14 years. He spoke from his hotel in Las Vegas over the phone to a group of journalists in Los Angeles, who were televised as they listened and asked questions. Some of them had known Hughes back in the 40s and 50s, and all agreed that it was him they’d interviewed. But, still, Hughes’ denials of the book’s authenticity counted for nothing because the journalists also agreed that it’d be just like him to flatly deny something which he had in fact done.
Nevertheless, before the book was published, Irving came unstuck partly due to investigations into Swiss bank accounts opened fraudulently by his wife, and partly because the ghost writer of the plagiarized memoir realised what’d happened. Both Irving and his wife were jailed.
But it’s Hughes who leaves the greatest impression: “This was a disappointed man, a man who held all the cards, chosen his own game, played by his own rules, and still, in the end, lost out.”
Even at second remove, Hughes dominates this book about a book, whose ostensible subject is Clifford Irving who, as a moderately successful author, was living on Ibiza with his fourth wife in the early 1970s. One of his neighbours, and subjects, was the art forger Elmyr de Hory (both appeared in the Orson Welles film F for Fake). Several factors enabled Irving to extract substantial payments for his bogus autobiography. His father plausibly claimed to have known Hughes, so there was “in”. Following de Hory’s example, he was able to forge letters from Hughes that handwriting experts passed as genuine. Moreover, via a dishonest Hollywood agent, he’d got his hands on the unpublished memoir of one of Hughes’ former aides, and hence a lot of genuine anecdotes, many of them unknown to the public. When these checked out, it boosted the publisher’s belief in Irving.
Finally, with Hughes being a recluse, it wasn’t possible to check the authenticity directly with him. At least, not at first. After failing to stop the book by legal means, Hughes decided to give an interview, his first for 14 years. He spoke from his hotel in Las Vegas over the phone to a group of journalists in Los Angeles, who were televised as they listened and asked questions. Some of them had known Hughes back in the 40s and 50s, and all agreed that it was him they’d interviewed. But, still, Hughes’ denials of the book’s authenticity counted for nothing because the journalists also agreed that it’d be just like him to flatly deny something which he had in fact done.
Nevertheless, before the book was published, Irving came unstuck partly due to investigations into Swiss bank accounts opened fraudulently by his wife, and partly because the ghost writer of the plagiarized memoir realised what’d happened. Both Irving and his wife were jailed.
But it’s Hughes who leaves the greatest impression: “This was a disappointed man, a man who held all the cards, chosen his own game, played by his own rules, and still, in the end, lost out.”
November 5, 2024
This is a thrill. Fay, Chester and Linklater write with economy and brevity in a dry journalistic style but it's very clear that they know what's funny about this. Everything is held lightly, occasionally to the book's detriment, and their arm's length sardonic take is incisively entertaining.
You feel in safe, well-researched hands, though. Although there are sources that have clearly been leaned on more than others, like their identified hero Jim Phelan, it seems like they spoke to everyone involved in the affair besides Irving and Hughes.
Not every detail has aged well, but the book's commentary is pretty progressive for the time where it chooses to intervene and non-judgmental without condoning elsewhere. It's a story set, and told, in the early 70s so it does need to be treated contextually.
Overwhelmingly, it's just so compelling. The structure serves as a relentless engine motoring you through the minutiae of this world of con men and billionaires. If you want to read about the Hoax, read this rather than Irving's account.
You feel in safe, well-researched hands, though. Although there are sources that have clearly been leaned on more than others, like their identified hero Jim Phelan, it seems like they spoke to everyone involved in the affair besides Irving and Hughes.
Not every detail has aged well, but the book's commentary is pretty progressive for the time where it chooses to intervene and non-judgmental without condoning elsewhere. It's a story set, and told, in the early 70s so it does need to be treated contextually.
Overwhelmingly, it's just so compelling. The structure serves as a relentless engine motoring you through the minutiae of this world of con men and billionaires. If you want to read about the Hoax, read this rather than Irving's account.
March 11, 2009
This wasn't the book I was looking for but my library didn't have the Clifford Irving "Hoax" book. That said, this was a hugely entertaining book about Irving's attempt to fake the autobiography of reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes. It is written in a journalistic fashion, with many leads explored to their logical conclusion. It was interesting to realize that this was all written in the early '70s when Hughes was still alive and Watergate was yet to happen. I'd like to go ahead and read Irving's take on it, but judging from what I've read about him here, I'm not sure I could believe anything he says. But you gotta hand it to him: the man had some balls.
March 6, 2014
The opening paragrah about truths and lies is 'you protest too much'. Makes me wonder if I should have this as non-fiction.
By one hour in I had developed a visceral dislike of Clifford Irving and his amoral machinations.
TBR Busting 2013
September 1, 2013
Certainly an engaging account of the whole affair. I believe further details on the hoax have emerged in the last 40 or so years, so a more updated account might be more informative at this point.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews